Tour of the city

Wow, what a great first day. Today was a holiday known as Budda's birthday. We started off our tour with a trip up to Vicotoria's Peak for a "Photo Opportunity" of the islands of Hong Kong. This is one of the larger mountains of the Hong Kong Islands. We were on a tram that went up the slope of 4,000 meters above sea level at an angle of 27 degrees. It was better then any other rollercoaster! It was only clear at the top for about 5 min, then the fog rolled in and it started to rain. We are amazed at all of the construction around the city - the scaffolding is made of bamboo and tied together with string!!!



Next was a stop at Stanley market. There are many markets like this around the city, but Stanley was supposed to be one of the better ones. We bought several souviners and Justin enjoyed bargining with the vendors. Mostly for sale were trinkets, silk kimono's, and Polo t-shirts.


After the market was a boating tour through the harbor where the fisherman live on thier boats. It is amazing to think that living on a boat in the harbor is more appealing then living in a 300 square foot apartment. The fishing boats were huge - we're not quite sure what they were looking to catch.

We had lunch at a Chinese restuarant for dim sum. This is a lunch tradition where the meal is placed on a lazy susan and each person tries a little bit of each dish. Mostly the dishes are dumplings or bread wrapped meat. They also served Jasmine tea that was excellent!!
After dim sum we headed to a Jade market. It is astonishing to see the people who make a living off of selling jewelry from a stand to tourists. The are always interested in giving you the best deal!! The jade was beautiful, mostly green but also in brown and purple shades. Next to the jade market was a fresh market where venders sold everything from freshly slaughtered pigs to live chickens you can choose from to fresh produce. I didn't actually walk into the market, but I heard plenty of stories from my classmates.

Our last stop was to the Wong Tai Sin Temple. Since today was Budda's birthday, we found many people at the temple burning incense and kneeling down in prayer. They also brought gifts of oranges and apples, believed to be a sign of energy and peace. Another event at the temple was shaking a can of 100 sticks. When you shook it long enough, one would fall out and the number of thes stick would be the number of the fortune teller that would try to predict your future. There is a lot of superstition and resulting Fung Shei that the Chinese believe in. For example, in the city of Kowloon, Kow stands for 9 and loon stands for mountain. It was named that way because there are 8 mountains around the city, the 9th one being the emperor. It is believed that mountains always contain a dragon, so the 2 buildings that sit directly in front of the mountains have a 3 story square hole in the middle of them - so the dragon can see through and is not disturbed. Another believe is the colors. Yellow is the color of wealth, Red the color of the dragon, or anxious, green is the color of energy. Their use of mythical figures and thinking is really interesting.

This evening we took a ferry to Lamma Island for dinner. It was beautiful to leave the harbor and see the city from afar. The sight of the island is incredible - building on top of building and coming out the sides of the mountains. Also, there are many mountains and islands. Dinner was interesting. We literally saw the servers remove the fish/crustacia from the tank and take them back to the kitchen. Giant prawns, Calamari, White fish, Lobster, beef, pork, chicken. It was quite a cultural experience.
The fun thing about this trip is that I'm meeting lots of new faces and learning about the variety of MBA students. One person even recognized me from my old AFA days. We are still continuing to have fun and am feeling a little more localized then last night. Of course a good day always ends over a bucket of beers....